Woman jailed for trying to cut
unborn baby out of pregnant friend's belly

May 11, 2010 - 7:12AM

A Hong Kong woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison on
Monday for the manslaughter of an unborn baby she tried
to cut from her pregnant friend's belly.

Leung
Sin-ting, 27, befriended the pregnant woman identified
only as "Ms Lee" through an online childcare forum in
2008, telling her she was expecting a baby boy.

She invited her to her home to pick up a baby bed and
feeding bottles.

But Leung, who was desperate for a child, strangled
Lee with a cord and then sliced open her belly as she
lay unconscious. Leung's husband discovered the bloody
scene when he arrived home and called police.

Lee survived the assault but her unborn infant, which
was 37-weeks at the time of the attack, suffered a brain
injury and impaired bodily functions, according to
earlier reports.

It died a short time later after an emergency
caesarean section at a local hospital.

Psychiatric reports indicated that the defendant had
a personality disorder, broadcaster RTHK said.

High Court Judge Darryl Saw said the 10-year sentence
took into account Leung's guilty plea to a manslaughter
charge and the danger she posed to society.

The court heard that the defendant claimed to have
suffered miscarriages in 2003 and, since 2008, pretended
to be pregnant by wearing towels tied under her clothes.

Even her husband did not know that Leung's pregnancy
was fake until the day of the attack, media reports
said.

Leung persuaded a doctor to give her a maternity
leave certificate and even put her own name on other
women's ultrasound images to show family and friends,
according to the reports.